Articles Posted in Felonies and Violent Crimes

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Police in Massachusetts have arrested Jerry Dixon, a 35-year-old man in connection to a number of unsolved rapes that happened almost 20 years ago. The arrest comes four years after another man, Anthony Powell, was released from prison for serving 12 ½ years of his sentence for a rape crime he did not commit.

Powell’s conviction for rape and kidnapping were vacated in 2004 after DNA evidence proved that he did not rape his alleged victim. Last year, Powell filed a lawsuit against police in federal court accusing them of twisting forensic test results and using unreliable witnesses to wrongfully convict him.

Investigators looking through an FBI database in 2004 identified four unsolved Boston rape cases that did not name a perpetrator. Using DNA evidence, a Suffolk County grand jury indicted an unknown person, listing him as “John Doe” for three rapes-the ones that occurred in 1989 and 1991. The indictment came right before the statute of limitations for prosecuting the cases had ended. The 15-year statute of limitations for the February 1999 case will not expire for some time.

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Nearly 12 years after the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, her family has finally been cleared of any involvement in her death. The body of the six-year-old beauty queen was found in the basement of her home in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996 and for years, her father John, her mother Patsy (now deceased), and her brother Burke were considered among the leading possible suspects in her slaying. They were never, however, formally declared suspects.

JonBenet’s family has always maintained their innocence, but the media reports alluding to their possible involvement damaged their reputations. Today, the Boulder District Attorney’s Office released a letter officially clearing John, Patsy, Burke, and all immediate relatives of having any part in her murder. DA Mary Lacy formally apologized for being unable to clear their names before, and, moving forward, her office promised to treat the family as victims in the JonBenet murder. The announcement came after a new testing method using “touch samples” proved that none of the Ramsey family members’ DNA is a match for the new evidence discovered in her case.

Tests in March indicate that a pair of long johns found on JonBenet’s body contained DNA belonging to an “unknown male” that matched a DNA sample taken from JonBenet’s underwear. Tests were also conducted to make sure that the DNA did not come from medical examiner or law enforcement employees. This latest DNA was also used to exonerate John Mark Karr, who in 2006 confessed to killing JonBenet, of her murder.

In a televised interview, John Ramsey expressed gratitude at the formal acknowledgement that he, Patsy, and Burke did not play any part in JonBenet’s murder. He also expressed his continued wish that the real killer be found.

Family cleared in JonBenet Ramsey’s death, MSNBC.com, July 9, 2008
DNA clears JonBenet’s family, points to mystery killer, CNN.com, July 9, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Read the DA’s Letter to John Ramsey

JonBenet Timeline, CBS News.com Continue reading

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In Massachusetts, a Hanover caterer who fired a gun at an intruder is being charged with assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling. David Crest is scheduled to appear in court for his arraignment next week.

Crest had been sleeping in the office of his catering business when he heard a noise on April 21. He was watching out for a possible intruder because he had already been robbed of thousands of dollars worth of food, alcohol, and equipment.

When he found the intruder-John F. O’Connor, who was the head chef and inventory store clerk of Crest’s business-Crest says fired his Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun in warning to protect his property. He aimed two of the bullets at O’Connor’s tires as he tried to escape.

Police, however, says that Crest should not have fired the gun or tried to take the law into his own hands. Crest, on the other hand, says he has the right to defend his property.

Crest says he has an active firearms license. Police, however, decided to file criminal charges against him because he fired his weapon in a neighborhood, shot the bullets in the direction of a man who was not armed, and did not take into consideration the possibility that others might get hurt.

Crest’s Massachusetts criminal defense attorney says that his client has every right to protect himself and his property and that he used reasonable force. Crest was also not reportedly aware that O’Connor was unarmed. He was also uncertain as to whether there were other accomplices on the premise.

As for O’Connor, he was arrested after Crest alerted police. He has been charged with larceny and breaking and entering.

Was it self-defense or firearms offense?, Boston Globe, May 15, 2008
Hanover caterer armed with a 12-gauge shotgun stops burglar, Patriot Ledger, April 24, 2008

Related Web Resources:

The General Laws of Massachusetts

Assault, Justia Continue reading

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Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a former aide have been charged with lying under oath about the nature of their relationship. Last week, Kilpatrick and Kristine Beatty, his former chief of staff, pled not guilty to multiple counts of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office during their arraignment.

The charges were filed following a nearly two month probe after excerpts of some 14,000 text messages between the two of them were published by the Detroit Free Press. The text messages had either been sent or received by Beatty’s city-issued pager between 2002 and 2003 and included sexually explicit dialogue, plans to meet, and exchanges about ways they could conceal their extramarital affair.

Last year, while under oath, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied having an affair. They had given this testimony during a lawsuit filed by two police officers who had sued the city of Detroit.

The two cops said they were fired from their jobs because they had been investigating claims that Kilpatrick had used his security team to cover up the fact that he had extramarital affairs. Both Kilpatrick and Beatty are married with children.

The city of Detroit settled the charges filed by the two men and a third police officer for $8.4 million. Kilpatrick and Beatty are accused of signing an agreement to keep the text messages confidential and the mayor is accused of agreeing to the settlement to cover up his affair with Beatty.

All of the criminal charges filed against Mayor Kilpatrick are considered felonies in Michigan. He will be fired immediately if he is convicted of a felony. The conviction for perjury alone could result in 15 years in prison.

Michigan Attorney Mike Cok and the Detroit City Council have called on Kilpatrick to step down. He is refusing to do so.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says other people may be charged as the investigation progresses.

In Massachusetts, perjury is considered a serious crime. Under the General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 268, Section 1:

Whoever, being lawfully required to depose the truth in a judicial proceeding or in a proceeding in a course of justice, wilfully swears or affirms falsely in a matter material to the issue or point in question, or whoever, being required by law to take an oath or affirmation, wilfully swears or affirms falsely in a matter relative to which such oath or affirmation is required, shall be guilty of perjury. Whoever commits perjury on the trial of an indictment for a capital crime shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years, and whoever commits perjury in any other case shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than twenty years or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment in jail for not more than two and one half years, or by both such fine and imprisonment in jail.

Defining perjury in Kilpatrick case: Judge the facts for yours, Freep.com, March 30, 2008
Detroit mayor, ex-aide plead not guilty, USA Today, March 26, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Charges Against Kwame M. Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty (PDF)

Detroit Mayor’s Office
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Five days after her release from prison, former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sarah Jane Olson was rearrested and sent back to prison on Saturday to serve one more year of her sentence. Prison department staff had concluded that a mistake had been made in figuring out when the ex-SLA member was eligible for parole.

Her criminal defense lawyer plans to fight this decision and cites pressure from the Los Angeles police officers’ union, rather than a calculation error, as the reason Olson is back behind bars.

California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the police union reject this accusation.

Olson’s real name is Kathleen Soliah. She was paroled on Monday after serving six years of the sentence that she received for pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of Myrna Opsahl while robbing a bank in Carmichael, California in the 1970’s. She also had entered a guilty plea for trying to bomb LAPD cars. She had planted pipe bombs under the car but the devices didn’t go off.

Olson lived as a fugitive for 24 years. She changed her name, got married, and had three children before she was arrested.

A California judge had initially sentenced Olson to five years and four months in prison because of 1975 sentencing laws. The state parole board, however, determined that she was a serious offender and changed her prison sentence to 13 years.

Olson was supposed to serve her parole in Minnesota with her family but was not permitted to board her flight from Los Angeles International Airport. After the error was identified, she was sent back to Chowchilla women’s prison.

According to prison officials, they forgot to add more time for the bank robbery and Carmichael’s murder, which now makes her eligible for parole after seven years instead of six.

SLA’s Olson will fight return to state prison, SFGate.com, March 24, 2008
Ex-SLA member rearrested after release, MercuryNews.com, March 23, 2008

Related Web Resources:

The Symbionese Liberation Army, CourtTV.com
Sara Jane Olson on Life in Prison, Talkleft.com Continue reading

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In Massachusetts, David J. Privette, the man accused of using cigarettes to burn the genitals of a 7-year-old boy, has now been charged by Middleborough police with two counts of indecent assault and battery and mayhem. The child, who is the son of Privette’s girlfriend, may be permanently injured from the repeated burns.
Privette, 22, also allegedly beat the boy with a belt and urinated on his head.

Privette has denied the allegations. The charges that had initially been filed against him were two counts of assault and battery with a deadly weapon and assault and battery on a child.

DSS officials had been aware of neglect occurring to the boy as early as 2002 and had been to the boy’s home four times since the boy’s school filed a physical abuse report on December 19.

They did not inform police until this week-after a nurse at the boy’s school found burn marks on his pelvis, genitals, and buttocks.

Privette began dating the boy’s mother, Michelle Henry, several months ago.

A nurse at the boy’s school had called the DSS in December and case workers spoke to the boy’s family. The school called the DSS on March after the boy told a teacher that he didn’t want to go home because Privette had burned his private parts with a cigarette.

The DSS finally contacted the Plymouth district attorney’s office after the nurse at the boy’s school filed a third report that the boy was being abused.

Privette says he was not at the boy’s home when the abuse took place.

Police file new charges in Middleborough child abuse case, Boston.com, March 20, 2008
New charges against man accused of burning boy with cigarettes, BostonHerald.com, March 20, 2008

Related Web Resource:

Massachusetts General Laws
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In Boston, Massachusetts, the civil rights trial of Shawn Drumgold, the man wrongfully convicted of killing a 12-year-old girl, is under way. Drumgold, now 42, served 15 years in prison for the 1988 murder of Darlene Tiffany Moore who got caught in the middle of a gang fight in a Roxbury neighborhood.

Drumgold was released from prison in 2003 after prosecutors took another look at the case and realized that he did not get a fair trial. Witnesses had told the Boston Globe that they were bullied into testifying against Drumgold. One witness in his murder trial had even been suffering from a rare form of brain cancer that can impair his memory and perception. This fact was never revealed to the defense.

Drumgold filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston, Massachusetts in 2004. He also named two police detectives Detective Walsh and Detective Callahan, both now retired, that had investigated his murder case.

On Wednesday, Ricky Evans testified that he lied when he was a witness during Drumgold’s murder trial. He says Detective Callahan showed him several photos of suspects and refused to accept his response when he picked another man’s photo.

Evans said he didn’t have a permanent residence during the time of the shooting. Boston police paid for his food and lodging at a local Howard Johnson for eight months. He says that Detective Callahan told him several outstanding warrants against him would be ‘wiped out.”

Evans admits that he never saw Drumgold during the night of the shooting and that the testimony he provided was based on information that Callahan and another detective had given him. He says recanted his testimony because he felt guilty about lying.

Drumgold claims that Callahan and Walsh withheld key evidence that could have cleared his name and also manipulated key witnesses.

Witness in Drumgold case says he made up testimony, Boston.com, March 5, 2008
Jury hears opening statements in Drumgold case, Boston Herald, March 5, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Drumgold sues over wrongful conviction, Boston.com, June 4, 2004
Drumgold Says He Has No Anger, TruthInJustice.org, November 10, 2003 Continue reading

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The Boston criminal defense team of a Massachusetts high school student accused of stabbing a classmate to death in a bathroom at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High in Sudbury wants the charges against the boy dropped because he has Asperger syndrome (AS).

The defense says that a grand jury were improperly ordered to ignore the fact that John Odgren, 17, has Asperger syndrome, which makes him a special needs case. Odgren’s defense team is arguing that the disorder is responsible for his sometimes violent and bizarre actions. Odgren has been charged with first-degree murder.

Odgren is accused of killing James Alenson, 15, in January 2007. He allegedly approached the boy, slashed his throat with a 13-inch carving knife before stabbing his lung, stomach, liver, and heart.

Odgren’s defense team believes that he would have been charged with second-degree murder or a lesser crime if the grand jury had been given more information about the teenager’s condition.

Last March, Odgren was found competent to stand trial. He is in jail in the Cambridge courthouse.

Asperger Syndrome
Considered an autism spectrum disorder, Asperger Syndrome can involve odd speech patterns, obsessiveness, poor social interactions, and peculiar mannerisms. Symptoms can include motor delays, limited interest, and peculiar preoccupations.

Odgren’s criminal defense team says that the boy’s disorder affects his premeditation and intent and that obsessing with weapons and other morbid items is associated with AS.

Suspect in fatal L-S school stabbing seeks lesser charges, Boston Herald, March 6, 2008
Related Web Resources:

State report describes teen’s early aggression, Boston.com, January 23, 2007
Asperger Syndrome, KidsHealth.org
Asperger Syndrome Fact Sheet, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Continue reading

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Nguyen Van Nguyen, a Randolph, Massachusetts man, and his brother-in law Chien Dinh Nguyen will serve time in federal prison for their conspiracy to transport guns conviction.

The two men illegally bought guns from a Georgia pawn shop in Georgia and then transported them to Boston. One firearm was discovered at the scene of a 2006 Dorchester gang shootout. Nguyen and Nguyen paid a third man $100 for each gun.

The two brothers bought 23 firearms. These guns can sell for $900 or more in Massachusetts.

A Bureau of Alcohol agent from the Boston field office said the two men made money by supplying weapons to gang members. Boston investigators, who have been trying to combat gun violence in Massachusetts, testified at the brothers’ trial in Atlanta.

The man who purchased the guns for the two brothers consented to becoming a “cooperating suspect.” He recorded phone calls with the two men. He also wore a body wire during one trip to the pawn shop with Van Nguyen. The cooperating suspect pled guilty to conspiracy to traffic firearms. He is serving five years probation.

A Georgia judge sentenced Nguyen Van Nguyen to 16 years in federal prison. This is not Nguyen Van Nguyen’s first brush with the law. He has been convicted for felonies three times in the past for assault with intent to rob, heroin possession, and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Because of his criminal record, Van Nguyen was facing a mandatory 15-year prison term. Under Federal law, his criminal record categorizes him as an armed career criminal.

Chien Dinh Nguyen’s prison sentence is for 2 ½ years.

According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Massachusetts has some of the toughest gun laws in the United States.

Two men sentenced for trade in guns, Boston.com, February 22, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Brady Campaign praises Massachusetts gun laws, Metrowestdailynews.com, February 1, 2008
2004 Federal Sentencing Guidelines, USSC.gov
Massachusetts Law About Weapons
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Mark Jensen, the Wisconsin man charged with poisoning his wife in 1998 has been found guilty of first-degree murder. Sentencing will take place on Friday although his conviction comes with a mandatory life in prison sentence. The conviction by the jury came after members deliberated for over 30 hours.

Jensen’s wife, Julie, was founded dead in her bed in 1998. Poisoning by ethylene glycol was the cause of death. Police say she had been given multiple doses. Just 30 ml of ethylene glycol can be deadly. Evidence during the criminal also indicated that a pillow might have been used by Jensen to smother her.

Prior to her death, Julie wrote a letter placing blame on her husband in the event that anything happened to her. She gave the letter to a neighbor. She also had told her son’s teacher and police that she thought Jensen was attempting to murder her.

Jensen was charged with 1st-degree murder in 2002. According to prosecutors, he was having an affair and wanted to get rid of his wife. Jensen’s defense team said that Julie was depressed, tried to kill herself, and then blamed her husband.

Strict hearsay rules that allow defendants to confront their accusers had blocked Julie’s statements and her letter as evidence. The issue of whether or not Julie’s words could admitted as part of the case delayed Jensen’s criminal trial for several years.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling compelled the Wisconsin Supreme Court to create an exception in this case so that Julie’s statements and letters could be admitted as a dying declaration of her state of mind when she died.

A couple of inmates testified that Jensen had admitted to killing his wife. One inmate testified that Jensen had asked him to kidnap a witness who was scheduled to testify.

A 2003 Massachusetts Domestic Violence Report by Jane Doe Inc. Lists several methods used for committing domestic violence homicide:

• Stabbing deaths • Fatal firearm injuries • Strangulation • Blunt trauma to head • Smothering the victim
Husband guilty of murder in ‘letter from grave’ case, CNN.com, February 21, 2008
Jury: Man Used Antifreeze to Kill Wife, AP, February 21, 2008
2003 Massachusetts Domestic Violence Homicide Report

Related Web Resources:

Read Judy Jensen’s Letter from the Grave, CNN.com
Ethylene Glycol, University of Cambridge Continue reading

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